A football fan from Fleet has been thanked for saving a fellow supporter’s life.

Ian Pearse jumped into action when he spotted a West Ham United supporter collapse outside Wembley Stadium.

Ian Perry, 73, and his son, Wayne, were queuing outside the ground minutes before kick-off in the Carabao Cup tie between their beloved Hammers and Tottenham Hotspur when Ian collapsed.

Thankfully, among the other supporters waiting to enter the stadium was Mr Pearse, a fellow season ticket-holder and director of Farnborough company WEL Medical Ltd, which supplies life-saving defibrillators.

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He immediately recognised Mr Perry had suffered a cardiac arrest and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

West Ham supporters created space for 49-year-old Mr Pearse to work until the emergency services arrived minutes later.

Police medics then delivered a dose of electric current to Mr Perry’s heart and, having re-established his regular heartbeat, he was taken to Wembley’s medical centre at the stadium.

With the experts looking after Mr Perry, Mr Pearse and his son Luke, 21, went into the stadium to watch the match on October 25, in which his team came from two goals down at half-time to beat London rivals Spurs and reach the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

When his father had stabilised, Wayne took to social media in a bid to find the man who had saved his dad’s life.

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“Without Ian’s intervention, the doctor said my dad would not have lived.

“This is about something more important than football and that’s saving lives. After watching Ian and the medics bring my dad back, I would urge everyone to get training to do CPR because it can be a matter of life or death.”

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After spending a few days at Harefield Hospital in Uxbridge, the grateful grandfather was allowed to return to his home in the Essex village of Rayne.

Mr Pearse, a former pupil of Calthorpe Park School in Fleet, said he was happy to finally put the CPR training he was given nearly three decades ago into practice.

“My son spotted Ian collapse and my training kicked in,” he said. “I made my way through the crowd and told them I knew what to do and they allowed me to start doing cardiac massage, with the aim of maintaining circulation of oxygen around his body.